TNA to Slam PPV Events on Sundays

After two years of offering weekly pay-per-view shows, TNA Entertainment LLC will shift to a monthly PPV-event format beginning Nov. 7.

The wrestling outfit will offer its monthly shows on Sundays, although it will rarely go head-to-head with juggernaut World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.'s monthly Sunday PPV dates.

The company is hoping the monthly PPV events will generate more buys than its weekly wrestling events, which industry observers said averaged 10,000-20,000 buys.

“As we continue to grow the company across all platforms and take advantage and respond to the ever-changing cable and satellite marketplace, we strongly believe the move to a monthly pay-per-view event format will be another positive step in establishing ourselves as the serious contender in our industry," TNA president Dixie Carter said in a prepared statement.

TNA Wrestling has already secured distribution for its monthly PPV events on In Demand, EchoStar Communications Corp.’s Dish Network and TVN Entertainment Corp., but it has yet to resolve its carriage dispute with DirecTV Inc. That direct-broadcast satellite service stopped distributing TNA events last month, after its carriage deal with the organization expired.

In other wrestling news, WWE announced that it will air episodes of reality series Tough Enough within its Thursday-night UPN WWE SmackDown! show, according to company executives.

Tough Enough -- in which would-be pro wrestlers compete to win a WWE contract -- aired on MTV: Music Television for three years. WWE executives said the series had “run its course” on the cable network, which led to its inclusion on SmackDown.

Eight 10-minute episodes of Tough Enough are expected to run within the two-hour SmackDown skein, the company added.